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Environment
Environment Main Global Warming Natural Disasters Habitats FRESHWATER

Mount Merapi

Photo: Vegetation and villages on a cone-shaped volcano

Green vegetation surrounds villages on the slopes of Mount Merapi, a highly active volcano in Central Java, Indonesia. Thousands of people, lured by fertile volcanic soils, live on or near Merapi. Many lives have been lost to the volcano’s frequent eruptions, which are accompanied by high-speed pyroclastic flows and mudflows called lahars.

Photograph by John Stanmeyer